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The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU Langone Health was created in 2012 through a merger of what were then the Departments of Biochemistry and Pharmacology.

Past members of our faculty include Nobel laureates Severo Ochoa, MD; Arthur Kornberg, MD; Julius Axelrod, PhD; and Otto Loewi, MD; as well as leaders such as James Shannon, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1955 to 1968, and Robert Berliner, MD, deputy director for science at the NIH from 1969 to 1973. In 2004, one of our distinguished adjunct professors, Avram Hershko, MD, PhD, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the ubiquitin system.

Among our scientists are two members of the National Academy of Sciences, three Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators, one member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and one American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow. Current faculty have received numerous prestigious awards, including the NIH Avant-Garde Award, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences MIRA award, and the NCI MERIT Award.

Our History
NYU Langone faculty in the fields of biochemistry and pharmacology have led important scientific advancements since the mid-19th century.

1841
NYU School of Medicine was founded as the medical department of the University of the City of New York and opened in the Stuyvesant Institute at 659 Broadway. The original faculty included Valentine Mott, MD; John W. Draper, MD; Granville Sharp Pattison, MD; Gunning S. Bedford, MD; John Revere, MD; and Martyn Paine, MD. Dr. Draper was named the first department chair.

1865
Dr. Draper was appointed chair of the Department of Chemistry.

1886
Rudolph A. Witthaus, MD, was appointed chair of the Department of Chemistry.

1898
John A. Mandel, MD, was appointed chair of the Department of Chemistry, a post he held for 31 years.

1902
The Department of Pharmacology was established, becoming one of the first of its kind in the country. The first chair was George Barclay Wallace, MD.

1930
R. Keith Cannan, MD, was appointed chair of the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Cannan worked with Jonas Salk, MD, on the inactivation of viruses through chemical means.

1936
Otto Loewi, MD, a research professor of pharmacology, shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Henry Hallett Dale for the discovery of acetylcholine.

1946
Severo Ochoa, MD, who came to NYU School of Medicine in 1942, was appointed chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

1954
Lured by new laboratories in the recently built Medical Science Building, Dr. Ochoa was appointed chair of the Department of Chemistry, which was renamed Biochemistry. Bernard Davis, MD, took his place in the Department of Pharmacology.

1958
William Van der Kloot, PhD, was appointed chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

1959
Dr. Ochoa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with his former postdoctoral fellow, Arthur Kornberg, MD, for the discovery of mechanisms underlying the synthesis of RNA and DNA. Other notable members of the departments include Charles Weissmann, MD, PhD; Piet Borst, MD, PhD; and Peter Lengyel, MD, PhD.

1963
Bert LaDu, MD, PhD, was appointed chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

1974
Robert Chambers, MD, was appointed chair of the Department of Biochemistry.

1975
Wlodzimierz Szer, PhD, was appointed chair of the Department of Biochemistry.

1979
G. Nigel Godson, PhD, was appointed chair of the Department of Biochemistry.

1980
Michael Shelanski, MD, PhD, was appointed chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

1989
Yossi Schlessinger, PhD, was appointed chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

2001
Herbert H. Samuels, MD, was appointed chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

2004
Avram Hershko, MD, PhD, distinguished adjunct professor, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the ubiquitin system.

2006
Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, was appointed chair of the Department of Biochemistry, which expanded into the Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center.

2011
Hannah L. Klein, PhD, was appointed interim chair of the Department of Biochemistry.

2012
The Departments of Biochemistry and Pharmacology merged into the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, with Dr. Klein as chair.

2015
Michele Pagano, MD, was appointed chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.